Encouragement
Christmas is a very special time for a lot of people, for different reasons.
For me, it is a time that I get to spend with my mother. My sons are grown up men, and I get to see them almost every week. But my mum lives many miles away from the city, about four hours drive down into the rural villages. I try to visit her at least every second month-end, but can only stay with her for a day or two.
So the last two weeks of the year are very special for me and mum, because it is the longest period I get to stay with her in the village, without hurrying off to the city. One would ask, ‘why not bring her to the city to stay with us?’ She does come, once in a while, but with a lot of persuading. Being a village person, she finds our small city apartments very restricting and the road traffic congestions too stressful.
I grew up on a farm, and life on a farm is very different from that of the city. In the rural area there is lots of land to walk about; mountains, hills and trees are within a touching distance. The air is clean and during the rainy season, you can even hear the rush of the rivers! At night you can sit outside and watch the stars shine. Early in the morning you can hear the birds calling out to each other.
The beauty of creation as declared in Psalm 19:1-2, is best seen in the rural area.
The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.
2 Day after day they continue to speak;
night after night they make him known.
The rural road to town is not a busy road, so one can watch and even count the number of vehicles that pass slowly up and down the road.
I guess I love the village life just as much as my mother does. I was born in the village, on a farm, and therefore my roots go deep down into the serenity of village life. The chimurenga (revolutionary) war disturbed the tranquillity for some years, but life has since gone back to normal.
You have to have tasted the slow pace and tranquillity of rural life, to appreciate why my mother would never consider city life as an option. So, for the next two weeks, village life here I come!
This year plan, however, almost did not work out. A spot audit at work was slotted on short notice for the last week of December. That found praying and fretting endlessly about how I was going to handle the disappointment of not being able to go where I wanted to go. One evening, as I continued with my fretting-praying, I heard God whisper to me saying, “The stone has been rolled away”. By who, and how, I wondered. I thought that maybe the audit had been postponed!
The following morning, I nervously took my leave form to my supervisor for authorization. The words, ‘the stone has been rolled away kept ringing in my mind. I expected her to turn me down. But she took the form and told me that though there was a spot audit coming up, it did not affect my territory. The stone had indeed been rolled away! How do you feel when God comes through for you in this manner? I was just full of praise.
But sometimes God does cancel or intercept our plans with His. A young lady in our bible study group was invited to South Africa for a wedding. She was so excited about her journey and took effort to plan for it. Two days before the wedding date, she set off for South Africa. But when she got to the border, she was denied entry. The reason was because, some years back, she had travelled to that country and overstayed her visit by a few days. She had to return home.
But God in His sovereignty had other plans for her. This young lady sings in our church choir and same weekend that she was to be a guest at the wedding party, was the same weekend she had been given the opportunity to sing a solo at the church choir Christmas presentation. The dates had crashed, and God had won! She came back home, came to church on Sunday, and sang her heart out like we had never heard before!
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
What are your plans for Christmas? How about including some of these suggestions to your list?
- Make time for God and worship.
The wise man left their business to seek out the King of kings.
“Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We have seen his star as it arose, and we have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:2
- Make time for the disadvantaged and the shut-ins.
The elderly, the sick, the imprisoned, the bereaved, the widows and the orphans, need our compassion during such seasons.
‘Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for the orphans and widows in their troubles and refuse to let world make us uncaring’. James 1:27
- Get in touch with your inner-self.
Life today is too rushed, it has so many demands, that one can hardly find the time for reflection. Take some time off this Christmas and let you inner person get re-connected with its Maker.
‘Draw near to God and He will draw near to you’. James 4:8
Miracles and breakthroughs are there waiting for us but we need to be at the appointed place for us to witness them. Mary and her ‘sisters’, walked to the
Tomb where Jesus was laid, not knowing how they were going to move the huge rock sealing the entrance. But they went anyway, trusting in the Almighty Hand of God. When they got to the Tomb, the stone had been rolled away. Maybe your stone has also been rolled away this Christmas!
Saturday evening, when the Sabbath ended, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went out and purchased burial spices so they could anoint Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3 On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” 4 But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. Mark 16:1-4
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